The Order of the Vigilant Eye
Description The Order of the Vigilant Eye is an organization dedicated to the research of Magic and Mechanical advancement. It's main goal is to grant mortals, mainly Humanoids from the Prime Material Plane, autonomy from deities and outsiders' powers and machinations. It is currently known for having two Floating Fortresses as bases of operations, in both western and Eastern Seas of the Continent of Andarran. These are called The Parnassi and the Pansophical, and they have relative independence from one another, as well as ideological differences. The Parnassi took the "Knowledge, at any price" motto to heart, becoming ruthless and even sinister in their experiments to a point that they ironically started a strict series of regulations to keep each other in check after the first decades. In contrast, it was the experimentation done in The Pansophical, where everyone was left on their free will to experiment, and there was a relative trust in one's colleagues, that caused the Weakening of the Veil near the "Bloodlands Atoll", in the midst of their investigation regarding time, space and dimensions. This event claimed the lives of many of the crew, having their places mostly replaced by crewmembers of The Parnassi, after some help from the Bloodlands Adventurers. Each vessel is ruled by a council of Didacts, experts on their own discipline. They answer only to the Omnididact, who resides in the City State of Azilon. Goals History The Order of the Vigilant Eye started as a cadre of eight arcanists in the City State of Azilon, order by its Senate in 3147 AC (After the Cataclysm). Their main purpose was to organize the defenses of the City in the context of the Thulsirian Wars, in which most of the other cities of the Cresultian Peninsula found themselves warring with each other for supremacy. One of the most relevant matters in this war was the intense intervention of Outsiders and divine meddling within most of the cities. As Azilon had an established ostracism towards any religious figure or worship after the revolt against the previous corrupted theocratic regime, they found themselves initially ill-equipped to deal with the upcoming conflicts. Luckily, a mix of political maneuvering and gave time for the Cadre of Eight to develop wards and measures of incredible ingenuity to protect the relatively small city of Azilon. In 3166 AC, after the war ended, Azilon survive almost unscathed due to the fact of it declaring itself neutral, and becoming an unattractive target, due to the costs of claiming it would be too much compared to the benefits. In, during, and after the eighteen years of war the eight taught many to the ways of Magic, and their precepts of Mortal Autonomy. With their help, Azilon managed to overtake a portuary city state ravaged by the conflict and boom economically with a series of trade routes with neighboring nations. The spread of their good trade practices and magical goods would be followed by their ideas, and the order felt less and less as an organization tied to Azilon as more to the keth (reasoning beings) in general. They took their actual name in 3267 AC, after having bought their autonomy after creating many Floating Fortresses under the guidance of Omnididact Xaphos, they left Azilon with three such immense vessels, leaving the largest, The Hecatos, as payment for their freedom. The Omnididact, ruler of the whole organization, would stay in Azilon to keep good faith with the city and it is said to come of aid if some extreme urgency would happen, a custom that remains to this day. This would grant them part of their resources, which aren't as essential in the current times, for the order had gained many sponsors. Nowadays the Order is essentially divided in both the crewmembers of both The Parnassi and The Pansophical, and are now more focused on arcane and mechanical development rather than intervening in direct conflicts, after the Massacre of Fafnjrgard, in which the loss of The Anagnorisis was amongst the many had in order to take down The First Father of Linnorms. Abilities The Order of the Vigilant Eye has at their disposal two of the few known Floating Fortresses on the planet. They have masters of the Arcane in their midst, of most of the schools of Magic, and have been known to be able to wield the power of the most advanced of magics. Together they have one of the largest repositories of knowledge in all of the known world. The Parnassi owns The Drahamastra, a magical device able to target objectives from incredible distances, channeling the primal forces of the planes as fuel for their destructive blasts, once used as a deterrent for the many nations in the eastern fringe of the Andarran landmass. Nowadays the inaction of the Parnassi has brought the zone to a constant turmoil, inner conflicts akin to the ones that begot the Order in the first place. The Pansophical owns The Eye, a device focused on divination and able to focus on places in the planet and even partially divine the future, and The Wandering Core, that allows instances of teleportation to the whole fortress. Relations Trivia